Electro-Optical Devices Obtained by LiNbO3 Crystals

Lithium niobate (LiNbO3) is a material of wide interest for both fundamental research and applications because of the richness of its physical properties. It is a ferroelectric, pyro-, and piezoelectric (PZ) material with large electrooptic (EO), acoustooptic and photoelastic coefficients. At the same time, it is transparent from the band gap edge absorption at about 320 nm up to the first infrared vibrational absorption at a wavelength of about 5 μm, covering all the visible and near infrared spectral regions. This provides a wide spectral window for photonic applications.